Food Inflation 'Monster' Coming, Experts Warn

Interesting read from the Toronto Star.

"Soaring fuel and grain prices have some economic researchers warning of catastrophic food inflation and political unrest within a year, the likes of which hasn't been seen in Canada since the 1970s."

Basically, the blame lies with land being used to grow crops for biofuel and the "burgeoning Asian middle class and its hunger for meat and products that use more energy."

I suppose it's good I'm already 75% vegetarian. Time to stock up the pantry.

Open Letter: Market Mom of the Year Junk Mail

This is email is directed to the person who came up with the idea of leaving fliers for the 'Market Mom of the Year Award' on car windshields at the Downsview Park Earth Day Festival.

At this event, there were a number of booths with information relating to the environment, organic food, social activism, etc. One such booth featured a number of motivational posters, magnets and stickers. One memorable sticker read:

"Only a corporate mind could think of cutting down a tree to print a flier to try and sell us a piece of shit we don't need. Stop sending junk mail!"

When I returned to my car at the end of the day, I was disgusted to contrast that message with finding an advertisement for the 'Market Mom' contest on my windshield. The irony of finding the flier after reading that sticker was only overshadowed by my lack of respect for the group who thought it would be a smart idea to use junk mail to advertise at an Earth Day Festival. Not only were the fliers printed on glossy white paper, they were then scattered all over the parking lot by the wind and, I imagine, drivers who were not interested.

Next year, perhaps a few well placed posters or a radio ad could be just as effective in advertising your contest without all the junk.

Thank you for your time,

Victor Rodriguez

American Geography Educashion

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/05/02/geog.test/index.html

Go team.

EPost

Are there really any Canadians out there who have not heard of epost? (http://www.epost.ca) This is a free online service that allows Canadians to pay, view and manage over 200 types of bills such as phone, hydro, cable, gas, credit cards, etc.

There are two main advantages to using epost. First, you are saving paper because the bills do not have to be mailed to your home. This also means less papers to file somewhere. Second, you can now manage your bills from anywhere in the world, which can be really handy during a lunch break or while traveling. When combined with online banking bill payment features, epost means you may never again have to touch physical paper in order to view or pay your bills.

I urge all Canadians to check out epost.

Note: I don't work for epost nor do I get paid by them, but I've been a satisfied user for over 3 years now.

Scary Canadian Personal Finance Facts

With all the talk about a recession, I thought this post would be appropriate. The average Canadian is in dire financial straits. Here is a summary:

The average after tax income of non-elderly two-person-or-more families was $67,600 in 2005., the most recent year for which I could find data from Stats Canada. More detailed statistics are available here.

In contrast to this, the average family debt in 2006 was around $70,920 according to this article.

Cash-strapped Canadian families are racking up debt at an alarming rate and the record number of households declaring bankruptcy will continue to rise unless people tighten their belts now, a new report warns. "The alarm bells are ringing louder than ever," says the Vanier Institute for the Family, in a report on the state of family finances in Canada released on the weekend. "They rang for governments and for many businesses and they did something about it. It is now time for families to do something about their own situations."

The average household income is now about $55,000 a year, roughly the same as at the start of the decade and up only one per cent, or about $500, from 1990. In contrast, average household debt now stands at about $70,920, up 16 per cent from 2000, and 40 per cent from 1990. "On average, households are putting nothing away for a rainy day, for a bout of unemployment, or for retirement," the report says.

Taxes have increased 1700% (not a typo) since 1961 according to this article. I worked that out to be a 6.63% increase every year since 1961.

The average family back in 1961 earned $5,000 and paid just $1,675 in taxes. That works out to about a third of its income spent on taxes while 56.5 per cent was spent on food, clothing and shelter. Fast-forward to 2007 and the average Canadian family earned $66,496 and paid $30,213 in taxes. On a percentage basis, the average Canadian family gave 45.4 per cent of its income to governments in the form of taxes while spending 34.9 per cent of its income to provide itself with food, clothing, and shelter, with only a scant 19.7 per cent surplus.

"Taxes have crept into virtually every aspect of Canadians' daily lives," said Niels Veldhuis, co-author of Tax Facts 15 and director of fiscal studies at Conservative research group the Fraser Institute. "As a result, the average Canadian family's biggest total expense is taxation. Now, Canadians pay more of the family budget in taxes than food, clothing and shelter combined. In contrast, the cost of living has not risen nearly as fast. The average family's expenditures on shelter only increased 1,063 per cent, food by 505 per cent and clothing by 455 per cent.

The book examines direct and indirect or "hidden" taxes such as sales taxes, excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol, amusement taxes, and gas taxes. While most Canadians are aware that income taxes are the single largest tax they pay, Veldhuis points out that many don't realize that income tax represents less than half of their total tax bill. Income taxes accounted for only 34.7 per cent of the taxes the average Canadian family paid in 2007.

Read about some poor saps here.

So what can you do if this article describes your situation? First, STOP spending! Cut up your credit cards and stop buying crap you don't need! Your monthly spending MUST be less than your monthly income for your situation to be sustainable. It really is that simple.

Next, seek the advice of a financial advisor or debt counsellor (I'm not one).

Try to consolidate your debts into a monthly payment you can actually afford. Cut your monthly expenditures (cable TV, eating out, etc.) to create an income stream to pay down your debt.

Once your debts are paid, set aside at least 10% of your income automatically. If you know nothing about personal finance, use a basic savings account to start with.

Avoid being house poor. Do not buy the biggest house the bank will lend you money for. Buy a house that you can pay off in a reasonable amount of time. Personally, I don't consider 25 years, let alone 40 years, reasonable.

Finally, don't ignore your situation. It isn't going to get better on its own. It isn't going to just go away. The only way your financial mess will get better is if you do something about it. Better to start fixing today than tomorrow.

After all, I need someone to pay for my retirement.

Open Letter: Ontario Bottle Deposit and Return Program

To whom it may concern at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal:

My name is Victor Rodriguez and I am an electrical engineer living in Oakville, Ontario.

As you know, in February of 2007, a 10- to 20-cent deposit program was initiated in Ontario for wine and spirit containers. This program was meant to mimic the Beer Store's existing bottle return program which has been in place since 1927.

Returning empty bottles is supposed to allow them to be reused instead of recycled, saving both energy and raw materials. Employing a deposit is also supposed to encourage people to return the bottles rather than simply throw them away which keeps them out of Ontario's landfills. The issue with this is that wine bottles are not designed to be reused and wineries are not set up to reuse them.

As you may be aware, yesterday was Earth Day. In the course of a 2-person 1-hour Earth Day trash cleanup in a forest near my home, my partner and I managed to collect 23 bottles of beer, 5 bottles of wine, and 9 glass bottles from other alcoholic drinks.

To me, this sends a clear message that the bottle return program, while a step in the right direction, could use some improvement. I would like to suggest a significant increase in the deposit amount for both beer and wine bottles with the goal of increasing return program participation. For consumers who already return their bottles (beer bottle returns are in the 90% - 99% range), a larger deposit should make no difference. The target is the remaining percentage of consumers who are not motivated enough by either the existing deposit or the environmental good deed of returning their empty bottles.

My suggested amount is a round number of $1 per bottle, regardless of size. At this price level, the financial motivation to return the bottles increases substantially and program participation should increase accordingly. Using a round number and ignoring bottle size reduces time and complexity for Beer Store workers.

As a long-term goal, once the return and refund program is successful in collecting all or nearly all acceptable bottles, I believe that wine bottles should be made truly reusable just like beer bottles.

Thank you for your time,

Victor Rodriguez

Open Letter: Halton Region Polystyrene Recyling

To whom it may concern at the Region of Halton,

My name is Victor Rodriguez and I am a resident in Oakville.

I am very concerned about the fact that polystyrene (Styrofoam) is being used and landfilled in Halton. Research shows that polystyrene never really biodegrades; instead it just breaks down into smaller pieces. The material has also been associated with health risks in humans as benzene, a known carcinogen, can leach from the packaging into the food. Over 20 US cities have already banned polystyrene food packaging, and recently a Toronto organization, NaturoPack, has began a campaign to ban it here as well.

You are likely aware of the fact that in 2008 Halton Waste Management stopped accepting polystyrene for blue box collection. This was indicated on the waste management calendar distributed to residents as well as on the region's website.

http://www.halton.ca/ppw/waste/bluebox.htm

The rationale behind the decision to no longer accept polystyrene for recycling was outlined on the region's website:

"Due to problems with the quality of the material -- it becomes contaminated with broken glass and food residue -- much of the polystyrene is being rejected at the recycling plant. The only known recycling plant in Ontario recently shut down and the market for this material is very unstable at this time. The Region will continue to investigate the feasibility of recycling this material in the future."

Indeed, the plant in question was run by the Canadian Polystyrene Recycling Association (CPRA) and closed sometime around the end of 2007.

http://www.mississauga.com/article/9785

The good news is that recently the CPRA has begun to accept polystyrene containers again. This is outlined in the following blurb from the City of Toronto's website:

"Polystyrene accepted at Community Environment Days
Effective immediately, polystyrene (e.g. meat trays, take-out food containers, molded bakery item trays, foam dishes, egg cartons, shipping foam, etc.) will be collected at Community Environment Day events and at some City Drop-off Depots. When the spring 2008 issue of Waste Watch was being printed, Ontario's only recycler of these products had closed its doors. The Canadian Polystyrene Recycling Alliance (CPRA) is now accepting this material."

http://www.toronto.ca/garbage/index.htm

I would encourage the region to contact the CPRA as soon as possible with the goal of diverting polystyrene waste from our landfills. The City of Toronto's solid waste department can be contacted for information at 416-396-4771. As a long-term goal, I would encourage the region to discourage or ban polystyrene food packaging.

Thank you for your time,

Victor Rodriguez

Bullfrog Power

Today we signed up with Bullfrog Power. This will replace our contract with Oakville Hydro.

"Bullfrog sources power exclusively from generators who meet or exceed the federal government's Environmental Choice Program EcoLogo standard for renewable electricity. Our power comes from clean, emissions-free sources like wind power and low-impact water power instead of carbon-intensive sources like coal and oil."

Our electricity rate will rise from 5 cents to 8.9 cents per kilowatt hour. The following table shows where the power will come from:

Basically in Ontario Bullfrog is 80% low-impact hydro and 20% wind. Because these systems are more expensive to run, new, experimental, etc., they are more expensive, hence the added cost per kwh. The result is that if we use 1825 kwh in a year (we use very little power), that power is generated via clean sources, so 1825 kwh less is generated using coal/oil/natural gas/nuclear. That works out to a yearly difference in cost of $71.17.

As one person's silly question was answered:

Q. I'm just curious how does one know that you are actually getting the power from Bullfrog? Doesn't power come from the same grid? You could actually get your power from Hydro One.

A. You don't, it does and I don't think that Hydro One generates power.

I believe that Bullfrog ensures that they cover total consumption (annual? quarterly?) but cannot cover it each hour (not in the least because most people are not metered by the hour) with green power generation. Besides, getting green power to match demand would increase the price somewhat and there is not yet a need for it.

Because North American grids are interconnected, this works fine. When wind power is being generated it can offset coal/gas/oil generation somewhere in Ontario or connected to Ontario if it is not needed here.

As for each electron moving back and forth, don't worry about it.

Penn West

Recently I've been following Penn West, an oil and gas company. Take a look at the following two charts:





What these show is that for about a year there has been a growing gap between the price of crude oil and the price of gasoline in Toronto. Logic tells us that we can expect a correction of this gap at some point. Analysts are telling us that gas prices may reach the $1.40s or $1.50s this summer, which would effectively correct the gap.

What we can see is that the price of Penn West correlates somewhat with the price of crude oil. If this is true, then the recent rise of Penn West should signal the beginning of a rise to match the rise of crude.

Any thoughts?

2008 WWF CN Tower Climb

This year's climb was a blast (again). M, her dad, both of her brothers and I got up dark and early on Saturday and headed to Toronto.

Click here for the results.

After that, M's sister and her husband served us a great (and very welcome) breakfast at their home in the annex.

 ----  ----------  --------  -----------------------------------  ------  ----------
                                                                        Gender
Rank  Climb Time      #     Name                                 Gender  Rank/Total
----  ----------  --------  -----------------------------------  ------  ----------
  1    00:11:27     14056  Matt Druken                          M           1/2035
...
 65    00:14:18     18032  Victor Rodriguez                     M          62/2035

Disadvantages of PC Financial Banking

I'm a huge advocate of President's Choice Financial Banking. It boggles my mind that anyone out there is still paying fees for daily banking, at least in Canada.

PC Financial checking and savings accounts are free. There are NO service charges. Checks are unlimited and free. Bank machine transactions are unlimited and free. The interest is always amoung the highest offered for savings accounts. All CIBC bank machines can be used with no service charges. Bill payments are free. There are no minimums to keep in the account in order that the service charges be waived. PC reps are available in select stores for in-person assistance. Internet, phone and bank machine banking are all free.

With all these advantages, why would anyone still be paying $12 a month for banking, and be limited to 10 transactions to boot?

Well, I've gathered a list of all the disadvantages of PC Financial I could think of or find. If these don't seem like a big deal to you and you're still using RBC/TD/BNS/BMO/CIBC, maybe it's time to switch.

• no ability to send email money transfers (but can receive them)
• no brokerage services (but numerous independent services are available)
  
• lack of readily-available human tellers (who needs 'em?)
  
• no foreign currency accounts (this could be an issue if you handle a lot of foreign cash)
  
• 24 hour delay to transfer from savings to checking accounts (this is pretty standard for high-interest accounts)
  
• cannot get rolls of change (doesn't bother me)
  
• delay of 1-5 days to get money into and out of other banks via bank-to-bank transfer (standard for bank-to-bank transfers)
  
• have to conduct advanced banking functions by mail (heard of this, still have not seen an example)
  
• need to send a check and wait a week to initially link to external bank accounts (only do this once, no big deal)
  

Personally, the only time I still visit another bank is to buy foreign currency. I suppose this involves bullets 3 and 4. Other than that, in 4 years of banking exclusively with PC Financial, I've never had any issues.

Please note that bank tellers at your traditional bank are generally not very knowledgeable about how Internet banking works. I have been able to do numerous functions that they insisted were not possible. These include:

• Transferring money into my CIBC Investor's Edge brokerage account (use PC Financial bill payments)
• Transferring money out of my CIBC Investor's Edge brokerage account (CIBC branches can cut you a check which you then deposit)
• Transferring money from an external account without physically carrying cash from one bank machine to another (bank-to-bank transfer using linked accounts)
• Receiving only credit card e-statements (I hate paper statements and CIBC insists they have to send them)
  

CN Tower Climb April 19, 2008

1776 Steps, 144 flights, 346 meters

Warning: Math ahead.

According to Wikipedia it's like this (assuming I've understood it correctly):

The CN Tower is about 346 meters tall at the observation deck. My mass is about 70kg.

Work = force x displacement = mass x acceleration x displacement
70kg x 9.8m/s^2 x 346m = 237356 newton-meters = 237356 joules

So it would take 237356 joules of work to move my body from the ground to the observation deck of the CN Tower.

1 Calorie = 1000 calories = 1kcal = 4184 joules (Note the capital "c")

1 Calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1L = 1kg of water by 1 degree Celsius.

Back to me: 237356 joules = 56729 calories = 56.729 Calories (true energy). However, our muscles and body are about 15% efficient, so gym machines multiply the number by 8 when they display it. This way, you know how much food you'd have to eat in order to do that much work. I'll expend 454 'gym Calories' to go up the CN Tower. Similarly, I'd have to eat 454 Calories (according to the food packaging) in order to have enough energy to just get up the tower at 15% muscle efficiency, or about 1 smallish meal.

Basically my "don't carry anything up the tower because each kg takes ______ extra calories" isn't very motivational because it only works out to about 6 Calories of food, or 0.8 Calories of energy.

All that said, here are some climbing tips:

- Eat high-energy food the night before the climb (like pasta)
- Have a good breakfast the day of the climb
- Dress in light clothing as for running a race in summer
- Hydrate yourself properly before the climb
- Empty your bowels before climbing
- Warm up a bit and stretch
- Carry nothing up the tower
- Walk up the tower at a steady pace; don't run
- Take the stairs two at a time
- Pull yourself up using the hand rails
- Go early to avoid crowds
- Stick to the inside (left-hand) track whenever possible